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Your marketing spend must be carefully targeted. Here are some good reasons why aguide2california is a sound investment for your business:

1. Our focus is California – aguide2california focuses on servicing travelers to California who are looking for services and accommodation in specific localities, in other words your potential customers. General directory sites cover the whole of America or even the whole world meaning that the overwhelming volume of their site traffic is irrelevant to you. Most of such marketing spend is effectively wasted. Because we concentrate on California, we attract precisely your target market. This means that every visitor to our site is a potential guest or customer for you, and every dollar spent is efficiently targeted.

2. It pays for itself - our rates are set competitively, and hence there is limited downside. In fact, all your listing has to do is to generate one sale for you, either directly or indirectly, in order to cover its cost many times over. Everything further is a straight increase in your sales. Signing up should really create benefits for you – it’s simple business sense.

3. We market, you benefit – Marketing is central to the success of our business and yours. Our site traffic strategy is specifically managed and monitored to ensure the most effective results are obtained. Some sites asking for your valuable marketing soend have simplistic strategies, e.g. reliance on sponsored links on Google. Our marketing operates on several levels, for example:

. you’ll find us as a main search result (without use of sponsored links) on search engines like Yahoo, Google, Altavista, Overture, Lycos and MSN. For further information on this, please click here;

. furthermore, since our customer base is international we aim to include extensive coverage of national versions of these search engines, e.g. MSN UK and Yahoo Germany providing direct access to travelers from these countries;

. we also have a highly visible presence on most global media networks. For example, on cnn, foxnews, nbc, abc, skynews, bbc. Try searching for ’california area guide’ and you will find us as the top rated listing on all 6 networks;

. and yes, we do use targeted sponsored campaigns on a seasonal basis (see below).

aguide2california has over one hundred first page listings on a full range of international search engines and media networks. So any traveler to California can find us.

4. Money-Back Guarantee – Subscription comes with a risk-free opt out. If you’re unsatisfied, simply cancel within 90 days of your initial registration and we’ll refund the payment. However, you should find we're a great asset to your business.

Advantages of the aguide2california Way

While offline and even traditional online advertising techniques are certainly not about to die out, they are relatively expensive and time-consuming. Key drawbacks are:

. targeting of potential customers is imprecise and broadbrush;

. the administration of the advertisement is inefficient as set up and alteration involves detailed liaison with a traditional media company;

. the advertisement cannot react speedily to demand variations.

aguide2california provides a uniquely flexible advertising platform that provides a solution to these drawbacks.At the center of this is a new streamlined advertisement placement engine which eliminates these inefficiencies. The benefits passed back to subscribers are competitive fees and increased advertising effectiveness.

Some of the features of our advertising packages:

*targeted and effective access to the precise and relevant market segment required;

*competitive pricing – the range of services provided will be by their nature significantly more cost-effective than traditional advertising;

*real-time access to your listing;

*access to a variety of different advertising platforms tailored to your precise advertising requirements;

*the unique ability to target advertising to manage peaks and troughs in demand through our ‘classifieds’ section. This concept of ‘Just-in-time’ advertising represents a substantial advance in precision marketing spend;

*no hidden costs – you purchase precisely the advertising that meets your business needs and no more;

*secure internet payment through the trusted Worldpay platform.

This represents some of the mostcost-effective and targeted marketing channels available which will give you an edge in increasing sales and building market awareness.

How Listings Work
The distinctive feature of advertising on aguide2california is that you retain full control of your display via your own administration area online. You are then able to upload your own advertisement summary and it will be displayed immediately.

That’s it – no delays, no unnecessary administration. You will be provided with your own user name and log in ID, after which, you will effectively have your own reserved advertising section which can updated 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. You can update your listing as many times as you wish whilst your advertisement is displayed.

Compliance with site standards are monitored by designated web administrators who, if necessary, will exercise their right to remove any inappropriate submissions.
Listing Categoriesaguide2california supports virtually any type of business wishing to advertise to the Californian tourist market, however, advertisements have been organized into 10 primary listing classes for simplicity: Accommodation, Restaurants, Shopping, Last Minute Deals, Events, Activities, Attractions, Nightlife, Holidays and Tours.

Listing Types and FeesDepending on the listing class, there are a number of different listing types available: standard, display (or premium) and deluxe.In addition, priority status can be purchased to give a supplier extra prominence. (Deluxe listings come with automatic priority status).

Depending on the listing class, there are a number of different listing types available: standard, display (or premium) and deluxe.In addition, priority status can be purchased to give a supplier extra prominence. (Deluxe listings come with automatic priority status).

A standard advertisement allows a good, basic advertisement to be set up. A premium advertisement allows for more descriptive text and photographs than the standard, at higher cost. A deluxe option allows even more information and images to be entered and this would attract an even higher fee. Examples of standard, premium and deluxe ads are shown on the advertisement entry screens.

Fees vary depending on the listing class and the type chosen.This gives the supplier the largest amount of purchase flexibility possible and who can pay exactly for the desired exposure wanted.

Choices available vary according to type and relevance for each listing class. For example, the accommodation listing class has all the options available, given the variety of accommodation providers available and the large amount of information to convey. Other listing classes (e.g. Restaurants, Events, Activities, Attractions, Travel Services) generally do not have the deluxe option enabled.

This is summarized in the following table:

Standard

Premium or Deluxe

Priority Available

Accommodation

x

x

x

Restaurants

x

x

x

Shopping

x

x

Events

x

x

Activities

x

x

Attractions

x

x

Nightlife

x

x

Tours/ Holidays

x

x

Last Minute Deals

FREE

FREE

FREE

Your Customers

aguide2california actively promotes its site profile, and has a growth strategy that is designed to grow site traffic in a stable but steady manner over the medium term.A key component of this strategy is establishment and consolidation of a prominent position on major search engines.One example of how this can work is shown below.

Using one search phrase as an example, you can see below a screen shot of its Yahoo! ranking. www.aguide2california.com appears as the top ranked listing on Yahoo ahead of over 44 million other internet sites. Even the California Travel and Tourism Commission’s own website is only ranked second!

Overall, aguide2california has well over one hundred front page listings on a full range of international search engines and media networks and this is being added to monthly.

Using an alternative method of targeted sponsored links, you can see below a screen shot of www.aguide2florida.com and its Google ranking. Again, www.aguide2florida.com appears as the top ranked sponsored listing on Google.

Details of those search engines where we rank highly can be provided to our customers upon request.

Signing Up

Subscribing is quick and easy. All you need to do is follow these steps.

Choose your Listing Type - Select the listing class (hotels, restaurants etc) relevant to your business and also the listing type (standard, priority) that best suits your needs. Once you are satisfied you can proceed to the online processing screens.

Log in and Upload your Details - When ready click on the relevant advertising button in the ’ADVERTISE YOUR’ section on the left hand side of the page and enter advertisement details.

The log in screens are slightly different depending on the listing class, but the procedure is basically the same in all cases.Note: the last 4 listing classes (activities, attractions, nightlife, travel services) are accessed through the ’Classifieds’ button in the ’ADVERTISE YOUR’ section .

Arrange Secure Payment- upon submission of the advertisement details, you will pass to the secure Worldpay payment screen for transaction completion. Your advertisement will be displayed immediately and can be edited an unlimited number of times.

and many more...

Other Services

aguide2california offers other services as well to our supplier base.These include banner ads, ’sponsored links’ within the travel guide content and publication of monthly features on the site.If you are interested in any of these products then please contact us at: contact@aguide2california.com

Frequently Asked Questions

How much do I need to spend?

As much or as little as you like. The site is designed so that you can select the precise advertising package to suit your needs, and you do not pay for services you don’t require. Once you are registered, there is no requirement to make any more purchases.

Based on your customer profile, we will provide updates if we believe your advertising spend can be targeted more effectively. Again, there is no obligation.

To try it out for a trial 60 day period. If you do not like it you can cancel it for a full refund.

Are there restrictions on what I can write in the advertisement?

There is extremely wide flexibility in this, but note that the advertisement listing must be consistent with our standard terms and conditions. These exist to protect the reputation and integrity of the site as well as the good name of our subscribers.

What happens when my subscription expires?

Subscriptions generally expire annually or upon specific expiry dates. Shortly before this happens you will receive a reminder. If you choose not to renew your advertisement feature, it will be ceased to be displayed after expiry date.

How is payment made and is it secure?

Payment is effected through the trusted Worldpay platform recognized in over 60 countries globally. Payment can be made in several different currencies although USD settlement is recommended.

When do rates change?

We review rates annually to ensure they are competitive but reflective of a range of market variables, such as the the level of site traffic and the value they bring to our participating businesses.

What future developments are planned?

A whole series of developments are due to come on-stream in 2H2005, including the opening of our sister site, www.aguide2florida.com in Q4, the availability of new muti-product advertising packages, the release of a new interactive forum facility. A downloadable pocket PC guide version is also planned for 2006.

Every effort has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the content of this site but
the publisher cannot be held responsible for the consequences of any errors.A number of
external links exist within the site and the publisher does not endorse any such external links.